Superb FairywrenEclipse plumage
The Superb Fairywren (Malurus cyaneus), sometimes spelt Superb Fairy-wren is a small bird with a long tail, usually held cocked. The tail of both the male and female bird is usually blue, except in the juveniles, which have brown tails.
Breeding males have a pale blue crown, cheek, and back with a thick black line that extends from the bill through the eyes and around the back of the head. The non-breeding males are a grayish-brown with black bills and bright blue tails.
The tails of the females bird are also blue, but not as strong as the males. The female have a reddish bill. The lores (the areas from the bill, on either side and extending to the front of the eyes) on the female bird is a reddish colour.
A young bird just starting to get his adult plumage ready for the coming season. I have seen these birds doing the furgling thing. A male bird from another group arrives with a yellow petal in it’s beak, whereupon the local dominant male allows him to have his way with all his females. Furgling is a form of kleptogomy (literally “marriage theft”) observed during the breeding season in Superb Fairy-wrens Malurus cyaneus. I guess this prevents inbreeding.
Author Marc Newman
Here is a “Jenny” or female. The ‘coloured’ males are often accompanied by a band of brown ‘jenny wrens’, often assumed to be a harem of females, but a proportion of them are males which have not yet attained their breeding plumage.
- Scientific classification
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Chordata
- Subphylum: Vertebrata
- Informal: Gnathostomata
- Class: Aves
- Order: Passeriformes
- Suborder: Passeri
- Informal: Passerida
- Family: Maluridae
- Subfamily: Malurinae
- Genus: Malurus
- Subgenus: infrageneric Malurus
- Species: Malurus cyaneus
Footnote & References
- Malurus (Malurus) cyaneus (Ellis, 1782), Superb Fairy-Wren, Atlas of Living Australia, https://bie.ala.org.au/species/https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/ae56080e-4e73-457d-93a1-0be6a1d50f34
- Superb Fairywren, Malurus cyaneusd, eBird, https://ebird.org/species/supfai1
Superb FairywrenEclipse plumage
Australasian WrensAustralasian Wrens Index Dusky Grasswren Purple-backed Fairywren Red-backed Fairywren Southern Emu-wren Splendid Fairy-wren Superb Fairywren Variegated Fairywren White-winged Fairywren
BirdsBird Index Apostlebird Australasian Figbird Australasian Gannet Australasian Grebe Australasian Robins Australasian Pipit Australasian Shoveler (Spatula rhynchotis) Australasian Wrens Australian Babblers Australian Brush-turkey (Alectura lathami) Australian Bustard Australian Chats Australian Magpie Australian Pelican Australian Pratincole (Stiltia isabella) Australian White Ibis Bassian Thrush Black-faced Woodswallow Black Swan Bowerbirds Brolga Brown Songlark Channel-billed Cuckoo Cinnamon Quail-thrush Cormorants Cuckooshrikes and Allies Dotterels Lapwings Plovers Doves & Pigeons Emu Fairy Martin Finches Freckled Duck Grey Fantail Grey Teal Honeyeaters Ibises Kingfishers Little Friarbird Little Grassbird Magpie-lark Masked Woodswallow Noisy Pitta Olive Whistler Paradise Riflebird Pardalotes Parrots Pheasant Coucal Pied Butcherbird Rainbow Bee-eater Raptors Rufous Fantail Redthroat Rufous Bristlebird Silver-crowned Friarbird Torresian Crow Waders Welcome Swallow (Hirundo neoxena) Whiskered Tern (Chlidonias hybrida) White-browed Woodswallow White Capped Noddy White-faced Heron White-necked Heron Willie Wagtail Yellow-throated Scrubwren